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The Cardiovascular Modeling Laboratory is focused on developing in vitro and in silico models of cardiac development and function at the cellular, tissue, and organ level. We are part of the Edwards Lifesciences Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Technology.

Employing today’s most advanced engineering principles in medicine is likely to produce the next set of breakthroughs with wide-ranging impacts on quality of life. A deeper understanding of how the heart functions mechanically at different scales would provide us with better tools to treat the different types of heart disease. Likewise, in order to utilize the popular stem cell-derived myocytes in viable patient treatments, we must be able to mimic the mechanics of myogenesis. The main strategic thrust of the Cardiovascular Modeling Laboratory group’s research is to merge modeling and experimental methods to understand the impact of structure and dynamics on the functional characteristics of muscle tissue. These engineering tools – developed in this lab in collaboration with medical and industry professionals – will enable us to apply relevant technologies in the development of pharmaceuticals, assist devices, and patient treatments. In this group, we will combine novel experimental assays and computer modeling to study the broad range of spatial and temporal scales, from subcellular to the organ level, necessary to determine how architecture and structure at the various scales affects function, as well as the structure-function relationship itself.